Monday, I posted about Freedom Outlaws and was overwhelmed with intriguing responses. (I swear, this blog has the best comments section.)
One surprise: Very few people objected when I added “Cockapoo” to the list of Outlaw types. True, long-time reader Jim B. accused me of insulting the adorable dogs. He may have a point there. And a couple of folks made cogent arguments against the Cockapoo strategy. But to my surprise, most seemed even to consider it not even an issue — and one person chimed in to proclaim his own Cockapoo identity.
When RagnarDanneskjold asked whether the Mental Militia Forums should add Cockapoo to its activist topics, early responses came from people who “got” the concept of bleeding the state dry by taking everything it has to offer. (I won’t be surprised if more people chime in on the negative side eventually, if they’re moved to chime in at all.)
Still, I think I should speak a few more words in explanation and defense of the Cockapoo as a type of Freedom Outlaw.
First thing to know: I’m not advocating that anybody adopt the Cockapoo strategy — certainly not ever as a first choice. (I don’t advocate any particular strategy; the best strategy against a centralized, top-down tyrannical structure is to do your own thing and be impossible to predict. It drives ’em crazy.)
As a Freedom Outlaw, the Cockapooo is a person who takes every “entitlement” he can get his hands on and contributes as little as possible to the mainstream economy. He (or she, of course; I just hate the tortured clunkiness of some “inclusive” language) becomes the government’s papered pet — but with a sense of purpose.
The classic objection (and I really can’t argue with it, morally) is that anybody who does that is simply stealing from his harder-working, more productive peers. Another objection, from the strictly freedomista viewpoint, is that it would be very, very easy for somebody to fool himself into believing he’s a Freedom Outlaw when he’s really just a plain old garden variety moocher.
Goethe said, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Well, none are more hopelessly deluded than those who think they’re Freedom Outlaws when they’re actually doing nothing useful.
Becoming a Cockapoo can be morally dubious and carries distinct risks of self-delusion.
That said, however, there’s another side to the story.
- The Cockapoo strategy is and should be a last-resort. This is a strategy and a lifestyle for people who’ve been beaten down to where they feel there’s little else they can do. If the IRS has taken your life’s savings or regulators have destroyed your business, you might become a Cockapoo. If you’ve been locked up for a victimless crime, and nothing is left of your income, your job skills, or your family life when you return to society, you may be ripe for becoming a Cockapoo. You might also become a Cockapoo if you suffer disabilities that make daily life and work a struggle. If you’re getting old. If you’re simply exhausted by life. If you feel your only alternative is to sink into utter despair and poverty, then the Cockapoo life might not only save you from starvation or suicide; it might give you the break you need to put yourself together again. And at the same time, it might give you encouragement that you can still fight back.
- The difference between a Cockapoo Freedom Outlaw and a plain old “welfare bum” is purposefulness. Consciousness about what you’re doing and why and how. Okay, I’m sure somebody out there is about to say that with consciousness and a buck seventy-five you can get a cup of coffee. But awareness and purposefulness do matter. They mean that in addition to simply sucking up benefits, the Cockapoo is open to opportunities — opportunities to influence, to monkeywrench, to understand and magnify the impact of his own choices, among other things.
- The Cockapoo is also a striker in the Atlas Shrugged mold (though I can hear Ms. Rand spinning loudly in her grave at the very thought). He doesn’t merely take. He refuses to give. he places his abilities and his time out of the grasp of those who would exploit him.
- Ah, but isn’t he, himself, an exploiter of his tax-exhausted peers? Yes and no. I said earlier that I couldn’t argue that point morally. In fact, I’ve made that moral argument myself a hundred times. But as a plain old matter of fact, as things stand now, with our government spending like a drunken kid with Mom’s credit card … nobody is actually paying the bill. With government debt as it is, do you really expect your taxes to go up to support a few, or a few thousand, Cockapoos? Not likely. Oh, we’ll pay. For sure we’ll pay. With inflation. Or deflation. Or both. Or default. Or who knows what lovelies the near future will bring? But when that day comes, the Cockapoo might pay more heavily than anybody by being cut off from benefits. Or by seeing benefits disappear down a hyperinflationary rat hole. Cockapoos might once have raised everybody else’s taxes. But I don’t that’ll happen now. I think we’re all going down together. Meanwhile, the Cockapoo is just one drop of water in a very big bucket.
- Canadian at The Mental Militia made another point very well: “In war, taking resources from the enemy and using them for your own purposes is a perfectly valid tactic. If the enemy foolishly chooses to give those resources to you, so much the better. Take everything, leave nothing.”
- Also, I’ve never heard a single person object to The Mole as a type of Freedom Outlaw. Perhaps that’s because so many people with a passion for freedom but an everyday life of complacency fancy themselves as Moles. I don’t know. But the thing is, a Mole who holds a government job or works in some government-enabling function is, most of the time, even more of a drag on the poor, battered taxpayer than a Cockapoo. The government-enabling Mole takes in more money. Maybe gets a big, fat, tax-paid pension. The Mole, until he commits his acts of Moledom, may do active harm to freedom (compared with the Cockapoo’s passive non-contribution and few-hundred-a-month tit sucking). Yet Moles, real ones, are admirable.
- And while a common mooch may fool himself into believing he’s an Outlaw Cockapoo, the world is full of people who do nothing useful for freedom while fantasizing a Molish — and illusory — secret Freedom Outlaw life for themselves. Which is worse? And who can judge what another person may, or may not, do when the time is right?
We’ll all chose our own strategy or strategies. Whatever we do, though, we should do it with the greatest degree of honesty and self-awareness that we can muster. We’ve got to avoid kidding ourselves. Somebody who takes government benefits with the comforting assurance that, “I’m just getting my own back,” is perpetrating a delusion. (“Your own” was taken from you long ago and given to away. It’s beyond your recovery.) So is the do-nothing drone who imagines he’ll be Zorro or Robin Hood — someday. So is the activist who keeps doing the same thing over and over long after it’s clearly not working.
That’s the main thing: Strip away self-delusion and do whatever you do with clear eyes and clear purpose. Change strategies when you need to. But don’t kid yourself, ever.
But why “cockapoo?”
I think the addition of Cockapoo is very valid (also not sure about that particular name for it…. I was thinking leech, tick or mosquito would be fitting, but I can see how a yappy little lap dog is not much different). It would also be a good topic addition to forums because, more than any other group, the Cockapoos can share what they find about various socialista programs and benefits that will allow them to suck the government resources dry.
There are so many social programs. I am thinking of that guy who does infomercials with the ?’s painted on his jacket that writes about the tens of thousands of offerings for grants, programs, etc.
There could be much more to the Cockapoo than just being a welfare bum. I ordered information a while back on the government’s homesteading program. I thought it was no longer offered, but apparently it is still in effect in some western (translation: desert!) areas. I find a program like that where you get 144 acres to homestead on, much more acceptable than say going on food stamps. The tolerance of programs is going be vary greatly from individual to individual.
With all the programs available and new ones created it only makes sense to try and take advantage of some of these.
Why Cockapoo? I debated with myself about that one. The word I wanted definitely had to imply “pampered pet” rather than leech or tick. I wanted: cute, harmless, useless, but generally mild and likeable. Tamed, in short. A creature whose “owner” (the government) could trust in its utter docility. I thought of Poodle or Pomeranian. In fact, I used Pomeranian a few years back when hinting at this Outlaw type. But Cockapoo is such an absurd little name.
If anybody’s got a better one, I’m up for it.
G.W.F. — good point! on accepting benefits of other government programs. I, too, didn’t know the traditional homesteading program was still available anywhere.
This year, several of my friends gleefully accepted $8,000 first-time homeowner credits. Since these are not just the type of credits that let you keep your own, they took government money in exactly the same way that people take food stamps or any other benefit. Once upon a time, i would have frowned and made philosophical noises. No longer. Grab whatever you can safely carry as you jump from the sinking ship into the lifeboat.
In our case “Cat” fits the ‘pampered pet’ description. 😎
ff42 — LOL. I’m sure.
But of course, as we all know, the cat owns you, whereas the cockapoo is owned by and slavishly devoted to its master.
The Cockapoo isn’t the best choice for Freedom Outlawry, but this isn’t a perfect world, and you gotta work with what ya got. For that matter, I suppose there is no “best” choice.
If you have some people chopping the tree of The State, others poisoning it, others keeping water from reaching its roots, some eating the leaves and fruit to the point of denuding it, while others build a fire around its base, the ultimate result will be the death of the tree. Yet, each tactic has its own risks- even from the actions of the other Fireflies who are doing their own thing to destroy the tree.
While I don’t think I could adopt the Cockapoo tactic, I have no idea what the future might bring. I won’t condemn anyone for doing what they think is necessary as long as they don’t try to drag me along.
Cockapoo makes at least as much sense as “tea-partier.” Those considering Cockapooness need to consider what the cost to them will be. Ther tradeoff of being a pampered pet is having the government involved in your life in way to much detail. It could make you a slave to the calendar of when the benefits will be doled, if a voter you might even start to consider voting only for what is best for your pocket book.
Then again, it could provide a freedom of movement and ability to come and go that many other freedomistas that are tied down to a job with a geographic location just don’t have.
The freest man I know is a friend who lost everything in a bad divorce and now lives out of a back-pack. He doesn’t beg, or mooch or get government benefits. He does live in the seams of society and will accept a ride now and then. He doesn’t have a house, but isn’t homeless becuase he lives in the local forests by preference. When he needs cash he’ll come into town and work a few days doing odd jobs, or sell cast off items he’s come across and cleaned up.
“I wanted: cute, harmless, useless, but generally mild and likeable. Tamed, in short. A creature whose “owner” (the government) could trust in its utter docility.”
Or so it seems to big brother, anyway…
I’ve got this pekinese. Small…he’s missing a leg, Very shy and kind around most humans. While we ‘overlords’ just laugh at his poor hygeine and his little spectacles where he throws himself down and starts kicking himself in the face and making odd noise, to other dogs he’s 14 pounds of terror. I have seen him draw blood from dogs that my other, larger hounds won’t even make eye contact with, and somehow, some way escape without a scratch on him.
I guess that’s the product of his ancient chinese bloodline…In a long quote all about the dog and how it should be groomed and treated, A chinese empress once said both “let it be timid” and “let it learn to bite the foreign devils instantly”.
So that’s my idea of a cockapoo: a stinky, both shy and agressive pekinese.
I was probably incorrect in saying there was still Homestead lands available. I began to question myself so looked back for some old notes I gathered. They were still there perfectly preserved by a layer of dust, so probably worth a little research to verify this is still the case.
There are still two ways to get free land from the government:
The first is Land for Native Americans, which applies to the state of Alaska and 150 million acres set aside to be claimed. I had a note that 45 million acres were still available, but it did not apply to me so I did not worry much about that program.
The second is more along the lines of what I was talking about. It is something called the Desert Land Entry Program passed in 1877 which (as of a few years back) is still in existence. The act was designed “to encourage and promote economic development of the arid and semiarid public lands of the Western United States.” Basically you can pay a registration fee of $15 and $.25/acre to get a claim on 320 acres which you need to setup as a farm with irrigation (I can picture the lush acres of growing sage brush to sell at the local farmer’s market now). This is (was) available in AZ, CA, CO, ID, MO, NV, NM, ND, SD, UT, WA, and WY but I think I read that it was discontinued in CA and may be in other too.
Seriously I had considered doing this and setting up something like a cactus nursery where you could operate with little water and have a product with a reasonable market value.
Here’s a link with some info:
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/lands/desert_land_entries.html
Anyway, the point in that book I just wrote is there are some neat programs that exist and could benefit the freedomista culture, but not everyone knows of them.
Cool multiple-post topic, Claire, and comments have been great.
I myself am somewhat tortured by all this, having accepted a circumstance that is, at best, Mole-ish, in preference to insolvency. The unexpected layoff following hard on the heels of a committing 3,000 mile move to a place we did not at all yet know or understand AND the concurrent birth of our little rugrat…quickly revealed that the state (in its myriad forms) was the only one hiring. (This was not exactly a surprise to me–other than the precise timing–but it definitely was demoralizing.) And so I now find myself in the bitterly ironic position of working for the State of Alaska. Not a single day goes by, that the irony of that arrangement does not cackle at me, mockingly.
Oh, I could rationalize it. The small group that hired me stuck out like a sore thumb among the options I had; I’ve actually never seen such independence among state employees before (even if some don’t realize it themselves), and the specific humanity of the individuals involved was actually moving. (One year later, now, it still is.) The position I’m in actually affords me great opportunities to spread cancerous influences like liberty and anarchy–entirely under the radar, since I’m really part of the faculty without being “of” the faculty. And it’s not like they pay me much; I’m continually looking for additional work to slow down the financial bleeding (thus far, the best of this has been taking on mandolin students–now there is honest work!). And so on.
But it’s still what it is. “Higher education”. “Grant” money. The classic state benefits plan. Hell, I am currently gnashing my teeth at the efforts of one of the unions to swoop in and “represent” those of us it does not already “own”, which in no way requires the meaningful consent of those to be “owned”. This, of course, simply comes with the territory, and although it enrages me to be treated like chattel, it’s hardly a surprise.
I hate how hollow this sounds, at least to me, but I am working on that. Having been where I am now, I can be much more forgiving of others who find themselves as unintended Moles or even Cockapoos…sometimes you just gotta play the hand you got, but even being the best Mole I can be is going to eat at me over time.
Actually, I think what this whole Cockapoo discussion has done for me, most, is adjust my perspective a little bit. The real value of Cockapoos doesn’t strike me as being additive to liberty, so much as it is destructive to the state. As David Codrea says, “cum ulla sella in pugno taberna”, and if that’s the only play I have available to me, I might pick it too.
I love it. Take a page from the Saul Alinsky playbook and overwhelm the system until it collapses under the sheer Cockapoo weight.
Of course, “Soylent Green” does come to mind…
Up the Republic!
G.W.F. :The medicinal herbs market includes a few desert plants, those might do well as a cash crop.
I think the most revealing difference between moochers and cockapoos would be when they talk. I know lots of moochers. Their tax refund is somehow “deserved”, as are the additional entitlements they demand. Nothing is ever enough, nothing is ever right, and most will bite your head off over the slightest infraction. Their grocery carts are full of booze and junk food, and their kids treat vegetables like poison.
I’ve also known a couple of cockapoos, although I didn’t have a word for that. They choose reasonably healthy food (with the occasional treat of course), and try to help those even worse off. They realize they’re living off others, and the ones I know feel guilty about that. They always have a plan of some sort for becoming more independent, even if some (like my grandmother) will never be able to put that plan into motion.
I guess, judging from the ones I know at least, it would be easy to fool oneself, but harder to fool other freedom fighters. Sometimes other people can make for a good mirror.
While being a Cockapoo would obviously be morally questionable, if there were (or simply perceived to be..) lots of them, would it not serve as a great motivation for the remaining producers to go on strike?
Either way, the government will run out of other people’s money to spend on the current course. Subversively expediting the process would, in theory, give the producers the choice of whether to continue enabling their own slavery. And should the governed cease to consent now, while there are still people who favor (let alone remember) liberty, a relatively peaceful transition may yet be possible.
On the other hand, waiting another ten or fifteen years as the security state constantly increases its power would result in exponentially more chaos and suffering when the failing state lashes out.
When viewed from this angle, the moral question is even murkier. As in, is it worse to mooch from the looters and give the producers a chance to say no (hopefully) before it’s too late? Or is it worse to wait until events force everyone past the proverbial awkward stage?
I’m not sure I like either answer, nor whether it’s even a valid question, considering that even doing nothing wouldn’t the same as initiating force. But, then, I’m probably not in a position to answer either since choosing to earn as little money as possible in order to minimize what anyone can take from me in taxes. Be they looter, moocher, or Cockapoo.
At any rate, this is an interesting subject Ms. Wolfe.
“On the other hand, waiting another ten or fifteen years as the security state constantly increases its power would result in exponentially more chaos and suffering when the failing state lashes out.
When viewed from this angle, the moral question is even murkier. As in, is it worse to mooch from the looters and give the producers a chance to say no (hopefully) before it’s too late? Or is it worse to wait until events force everyone past the proverbial awkward stage?”
In the long run (or short run, the way things are going) the end result is the same.
As in Atlas Shrugged, the worse things got for the illustrious leaders, the more desperate ideas they thought up. Of course they only hastened their own downfall–the more pressure they applied, the faster the country fell apart. They never really understood what was going on, never believed THEIR policies would cause such catastrophe. It was always the other guy’s fault.
Just as it is today.
There are times I feel I am reading Atlas Shrugged again. While the particulars are different, the cause-and-effect is the same. And from a personal POV, the difference is that I’m not so timid today about the results as I was many years ago. While it WILL affect me and mine adversely, I’m still inclined to say, “bring it on, the sooner the better”–so I can finally see liberty in the making.
1st I’m glad to see your active again Claire. Your cockapoo strategy is not new during the70’s & 80’s a similar strategy was advocated by a number of black communist groups. Collect welfare get on any government programs to draw money that they could the theory was the weight of all the programs would bankrupt the government and destroy capitalism. In some ways it has worked. the plan somewhat died as communism died. It still has some merits to drag down a give away government and possible destroy this corrupted economic system masquerading as capitalism.
I argued with Walter Block about this idea a little while back.